"We’re having a major shoe moment," MacDonell writes. "What we choose to put on our feet has enormous significance." We couldn't agree more! Captivating women around the world for centuries as a form of expression that communicates to the world who they are or who they want to be, shoes have become integrated into our lives. The Shoe Book takes a look at footwear past and present and reviews a wide range of iconic styles and their designers—from sneakers to stilettos and Birkenstocks to booties—and we simply can't get enough.

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1. Sneakers Go High Fashion

The sneaker may be in the midst of a fashion comeback, but the comfy kicks have also inspired other designs. "They’ve become some of the most fetishized shoes around," MacDonell states.

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2. The Growing Shoe Fixation

Many department stores have enlarged and refurbished their shoe departments so that they now take up entire floors. "At its Manhattan flagship location, Saks Fifth Avenue created a shoe department so large that the post office gave it its own zip code: 10022-SHOE," writes MacDonell.

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3. Increasingly Elaborate Embellishments

In the nineteenth century, boots were the footwear of choice, often "with beading, embroidery, and uppers that combined fabric and leather," says MacDonell.

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4. Marilyn's Slick Trick

The bombshell's boost? Stilettos. She was rumored to wear heels with one made slightly shorter than the other, "thus ensuring she was permanently and fetchingly off-kilter," says MacDonell.

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5. Two Times the Fun

It's the norm now to be a shoe fanatic, explains MacDonell. "The average American woman owns about 20 pairs, nearly double the number that was in her closet in the late 1990s," the author writes.

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6. Time For Liftoff

Roger Vivier, who worked for Christian Dior at the time, is credited with inventing the stiletto in 1954, a 3-inch steel-reinforced heel that "perched on a base smaller than a dime," says MacDonell.

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7. One Pair is Never Enough

Designers have long tinkered with the shape of high heels, and "have consistently shown great imagination in devising new ways to lure women to the shoe department," the author writes.